The Banyan of King George V Park

This park opened in June 1941 and was a rubbish dump by Christmas. King George V Memorial Park in Jordan was finished late, its opening on 11 June delayed because the governor was ill, and six months later Hong Kong fell to the Japanese and the new park was put to other use for the duration. The Urban Council rebuilt it after the war, added three Chinese-styled kiosks and reopened it on 21 March 1954, then extended it westward in the 1970s when Canton Road was realigned, and redesigned it again in the 1990s after the airport programme reclaimed the land beyond it. Through four versions of the park, this fig has stayed put. The government's tree register gives it a trunk 1.8 metres through, thirteen metres tall, an eighteen metre crown and normal vigour at its last inspection in November 2022. It gives no age, and no other source names the tree individually, so its years are undocumented. One thing to get right before setting off: Hong Kong has two parks named after King George V. This is the Kowloon one, on Canton Road in Jordan, a couple of minutes further on from the King Banyan of Kowloon Park. The other is across the harbour in Sai Ying Pun, with its own trees and its own history.